Prepared Speech

We are gathered today to mourn the passing of Michael Andrew Freeman. A friend, an exemplary gentleman and a fine scientist.

As we mourn Michael, we do not only mourn the man, but the the education and decades of experience that will likely never find a match in the coming world.

There was once a time in which an individual could get a degree by studying among their peers in a university. Spend their days honing a well of knowledge and

expertise in their field to one day help the whole human community take leaps into a future unimaginable by the generations that came before. With Michael, one more candle left burning from those days is snuffed.

Thanks to Michael, we may still make leaps for humanity. To bring closer the day, when a child may choose to entertain the idea of becoming a scholar, like him.

But that day is not yet here, and as Michael's brilliant mind leaves us, we must struggle to hold on to what glimpses we got of it. Or we have lost more than a man. We have lost a measurable part of human knowledge,for good.